Hiking and Pampering

We took some time, this last week, to enjoy the awesome weather we have been experiencing! Not quite warm yet, but warm enough to hike! We spent some time checking out an old house that they kids like to explore, finding treasures, and wondering how most of the junk even got there in the first place! I forgot how much I love to hike with my family and how much I love to take good pictures of them! I love when I look at pictures of them and they just make me smile!

Kamren is the family photographer when it is not me!

This little man melts my heart!
We had to explain to the kids that though daddy was trying this out, they were not allowed! Darn daring daddy!

Apparently Daxton hasn't done much hiking, but he was all over it! Climbing up things, sliding down things! He had me pretty freaked out a few times! I think we will be doing a lot of hiking this spring!

Later on, Tony took Karlin and Kenzie to a play that Tuacahn High was putting on, and left Kamren and I alone for some girl time. Dax was here, but he was preoccupied with a train movie! We washed her hair, made her smell all pretty with lotion, painted her fingernails and toenails, and gave her a facial! She was in Heaven!!! I even talked to her like she was in a spa. She liked that the best! She even turned to me at one point and said, "Ummmm.....Ma'am, You are kind of hurting me so could you please stop doing that?!!" I was cracking up. I love spending time with one kid at a time. It is so fun for me to get to put all of my energy into just one person and I know they enjoy it to. Kamren told me this was the best night ever! I am so glad because it was a pretty fun night for me to!

She decided she liked to see through the cucumbers so she bit the middles out!

The time is almost here!!!

Today was one of those days that you just don't wait to write about! No matter how behind you are on Thanksgiving, Christmas, yada, yada, yada!

We are so proud of this MAN that we now have living among us! Today Troy was set apart as an Elder. I was beaming with pride as his Dad set him apart and give him the Melchizedek priesthood. Our home was filled with 25 to 30 people all here to either help give, or support Troy, in receiving the Priesthood! I was amazed by the Spirit in the room, and by the amazing men that showed up to lay their hands upon his head. The Spirit was so strong, and I knew at that moment, that he is ready! I have wondered at times if he would really go or if he was really ready, but today I really saw the man that he is becoming!

He sent in his mission papers on Monday, so about 2 weeks and we should know where, in this crazy world, he will be serving his mission! We are so excited to find out! I am hoping stateside, Tony and my brother say Canada, but who knows!

Today was a great day at the Chambers house! A Chambers finally gave a Chambers the priesthood! That is pretty exciting!

This is Troy with his Grandma and Grandpa Barr

I will miss this smile when he is gone!

Down on the farm

We were lucky enough to have an invite out to the Jones family farm for FHE! The kids were stoked! I was just excited to get my camera out to document all the fun! The rest of my family is way better than I am at being around animals! They had a blast! I think we might even have a future farmer out of the experience!

We all took a turn trying to milk the cow. We didn't even come close to the speed of the kids that do this every day!

This is one of President Jones' kids squirting milk right from the cows udder into his mouth! We were laughing hard!

Kenzie says after her farm experience that she wants to be a farmer when she grows up!

This is as close as I got to this thing! Snakes, actually animals in general, just aren't my thing!

Tony was pretty at home too with all of the crazy creatures and animals they have at their farm!

Jesus wants me for a Sunbeam!!!

It's True! My baby is finally a Sunbeam! Sniff! Sniff! I kind of went to church today a little in denial! I also was a little giddy at the thought that I am officially done having kids in the nursery! Not that there wasn't any crying involved, but still! I can't say he went to willingly, and he came home complaining that he didn't get to play with toys or get a snack at church today! He is officially a primary kid! He looked so grown up as he walked into church today, I just had to get a couple shots!

New Years Eve Weekend 2010

We were lucky enough to get to spend our New Years Weekend up in Springdale this year. We even dragged another family along for the fun! Though it was cold-Wow! was it cold! We had a great time! We went to the movies, played lots of games, and just enjoyed being away for a couple nights!

Can you tell this kid isn't ours?!!! He kind of fits in!!1
As usual, we are missing a teenager! She thought it was more fun to hang with her friends than her family! I guess we should be getting used to this by now!

Christmas

We decided this year, since we were just up North for Thanksgiving, to just stay home this year for Christmas! I think it put the Magic back in Christmas for us!!! We didn't do anything spectacular, we just kind of did our own thing and made our own traditions. It was fun and low key, and fabulous!

We made 2 gingerbread houses on Christmas Eve. Tony, Karlin, and Kenzie made a really great house that looked awesome!

Mine, Daxton, and Kamren's on the other hand, was horrible! It fell instantly and from there it went from bad to worse! Oh well! It still tasted the same! And the kids were just as happy!
After our houses, we let the kids open up there jammies and robes! Karlin was not a fan of her princess jammies! Ooops! So I kind of forgot about her anti-princess phase she is going though! So she put the robe on and some jammies she already had! My bad! We also read a book written by Michael McClean that is the children's version of his Forgotten Carols. We loved it and so did the kids! It will be around every Christmas from now on!
The next morning, there were a lot of happy little people in this house!

Kenzie had what can only be described as a LEGO Christmas! Everything had to do with Lego's and she was so stinking excited about it!

Daxton loved his Thomas the Train Christmas and table! He has trains coming out of his ears!
Karlin got a new bike and and Ipod and didj! She was happy!
Kamren got a Kareoke machine which is right up her alley! She will be spending many hours singing with that thing! She also got a Go Go walking pup! Which doesn't walk to well, we already have to go exchange it!





We ate Christmas dinner in our jammies and spent the whole day playing with toys and not needed to go anywhere! It is going to take a lot to convince us that we need to leave our house ever again on Christmas! Sorry Mom!

Vegas

Mid November, we got away for a night to Vegas to pick up the new Dixie Direct books for 2011! We stayed at The Orleans(the printer paid for it!) What a fun place to stay! It not only has a movie theatre, a bowling alley and an arcade, but it also has a GIANT daycare/playground! My kids were so excited about the playground that they woke up the next morning begging to go there! When asked if they wanted to go look around Vegas or go to the daycare, they ALL chose daycare! What?! Whatever! We were more than happy to oblige!

So, we went bowling! All by ourselves! One of the rules of the playground, is that you can't leave the premises. We didn't mind!
Well, his stance and ball looked like a strike, but......
apparently not! I won the first game!
Here's the proof! Though I am not great at bowling, beating Tony is always fun!
But he always seems to beat me the second game! He always is better the second game, every time!
This cutie gets cuter by the moment! I can't get enough of her smile!
This was the first book I picked up at the printers! It is so exciting to see that first Dixie Direct book every year, but this was exciting in a different way. To see a product similar to ours, but not ours, is exciting!
After getting the books, we went exploring a little. Hitting the Shark Reef at Mandalay Bay. Our kids had never been there and they loved it!

I am always too chicken to touch these animals, but not the rest of my family, they love this stuff!
I thought this was kind of a cool picture. I have never seen what a sting rays face actually looked like until now!

Kamren definitely has drama in her future, and she is good at it!

We will be going back in the summer to this place. Our kids had a blast, so did we, and we can't wait to go when it is warm enough to go play in there amazing pools! I love that it is really close to the Strip too! We had a great day and a half away!